There’s been a lot of talk about this vaccine being “rushed”, which has led some to believe it is not safe. Experts have said even though the process of development was expedited this vaccine had gone through just as much of a rigorous approval as any other vaccine.

Much of the genetic work had already been done on the similar SARS and MERS viruses. The genome of Covid was sequenced very quickly. An unbelievable amount of funding has been put into the development process. Many of the trial processes were expedited. Not “rushed”, but administrative delays were reduced. Just like pilots can expedite a turnaround but still do everything required for safety, so can vaccine researchers if they need to. No corners have been cut.

Here’s some articles from people who would know, various Professors of Immunology and Directors of Vaccine Research:

Less than a year to develop a COVID vaccine – here’s why you shouldn’t be alarmed

Oxford vaccine: How did they make it so quickly?

Last I checked WA is doing pretty well. A lot of pilots over there never stopped flying too.

Stunning job Mark, congratulations to you.

The flying didn’t stop because of the INTRAstate routes. More luck for those pilots than anything. Same with QLD.

Pffft! What would they know? Anyway, they are probably just shills for Big Pharma.

To counteract your so-called 'experts', I could post a link to a YouTube video from some dude called Kevin from Byron Bay,
he doesn't give his qualifications, but he's definitely a smart guy cos the video echoes exactly my 'gut feeling' about this whole Corona bs, - and he's not a shill for anybody because he's on the DSP with a nice side gig selling Tofu sandwiches at the Farmer's market .

So my message to you is; ignore these experts, do your own resurch!

What he said.

Plenty of intrastate routes in NSW and Vic that are at a stand still.

As unlikely as it would be, if China decides to put tariffs on iron ore, WA will need every single cent from the east coast that it could get its hand on.

If that happens the whole country is f***ed

The truth is China NEEDS the ore - their other options from South America and South Africa are stuffed. Africa, the logistics mechanism does not work (corruption and infrastructure issues rampant) and Peru is halted by virtue of the dam collapse. If the ore stops, then China's growth is impacted massively.
Part of me actually wishes that WA puts a tariff on ore going to China - play them at their own game.

So guessing WA will close to NSW tomorrow

He must be frothing at the mouth to announce it!

Open all of 8 days and I reckon it's going to close 9 days before Christmas. Yep, this on-again/off-again response is going swimmingly!

If Mark McGoose want's to play silly buggers, Gladys should take a leaf from his play book and ban everyone crossing the International border into NSW and see how the states react. If they don't want NSW residents crossing their borders, well, two can play that game.

If WA close the Border Qantas and Virgin should just ground all flights for 48 hours. Pressure from the mine sites would have the Borders open within 3 hours.

Im sure this open/shut business has cost QF as much as the industrial issues they had the last time they grounded everything.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-...ntine/12989508

For those who haven’t heard, the current ‘community spread’ cases in Sydney originated from a minibus driver transporting aircrew to their accommodation.

To reduce the risk posed by aircrews, the suggestion from at least one epidemiologist, is for the ADF or Police to take over crew transfers.

Would be interesting to know if the driver was wearing a mask & also if this was his only job or 1 of many.
We in melbourne hated having to wear masks but after enduring a few months of it it now feels half normal & rightly or wrongly gives a feeling of protecting oneself.
All of us australia wide need to keep this virus out of our lives.

"To reduce the risk posed by aircrews, the suggestion from at least one epidemiologist, is for the ADF or Police to take over crew transfers."

Would that really reduce the risk? Maybe have the driver in full PPE might reduce the risk, but ADF or police are not immune to catching this cold.

The biggest "risk" facing Australia are politicians and bureaucrats playing power games for their own self interest.

They did not, the 60 and 70- yr old have never met the driver, the driver is a separate issue altogether. These two could potentially be super spreaders the amount of places they visited in Sydney and Avalon. it will be interesting to find out how they contracted it.

They are supplimenting the reduction in iron ore with an large increase in a scrap. They are taking all the addtional scap iron from the ship breakers running at absolute max capacity, theres a pretty large backlog of ships waiting to be scrapped. This is of course only a short term option and only covers a small percentage of the ore shipped from australia. The other rumor on the finance side is saying straight up the chinese economy cant afford to pay for all the incoming resources and is a bit of a house of cards atm.

The ABC article raises the very good point of our international aircrews possibly being our weakest link, and should the current accommodation/isolation be looked at.

Personally I think it SHOULD have been beefed up when we had so long without community transmission that our borders could open.

It must be australian international crews because foreign crew are quarantined in hotels till their flight out. Blanco Liro blogged his time in sydney quarantine during his 24 layover in sydney

All other international arrivals have been made to quarantine at Darwin’s Howard Springs facility but an NT Health spokeswoman said under national guidelines flight crew are able to undertake quarantine “under an alternative arrangement”.

Have the national guidelines been revised since the Canadian pilots took a few strolls in Darwin a few months back, while in hotel quarantine?

They were different they weren't transiting, they were coming out here for for the fire fighting season and were going to be here for 6 months or what ever. They were also not in hotel quarantine they were in a self isolation in the same way that movie crews, sporting teams and celebrities / rich people can avoid the HQ

Transiting crews are loaded up taken to a hotel and locked in the room then taken back to plane next day and they fly out, in blancos case he is a co pilot on a 777 doing cargo and he is afik held in a HQ same guards same no leaving room rules

I am a pilot and sometimes return from overseas as a passenger. Am I exempt from hotel quarantine?

Under the NSW Public Health Orders, you are not exempt unless you are part of the flight crew on the particular flight and you are required to enter hotel quarantine. This is also applicable to cabin crew or other airline crew who are not part of the flight crew on any given flight arriving in NSW from overseas.

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infect...tine-faqs.aspx

Annnnndddd..... There it is.

The WA Border is effectively closed to NSW again. Unless you want to spend two weeks in detention - at your own cost mind you. Source. Guess I'm still not going back to work anytime soon...

It's actually a bit nuanced this time, just have to take a test on arrival and self isolate until you receive a negative result.

Talk about exaggerating, its a one day quarantine until covid test results come through.....Also im sure you just forgot to mention TAS imposed restrictions earlier today for NSW.....

The airlines really need to push back on this WA idiot. If there's no cost to him he'll keep doing this until the election is over.

The airlines should suspend all services to WA until, at a minimum, 14 days have passed since the past lockout.

The government should suspend all job seeker/job keeper payments to WA, let the bastard rely on his "surplus" gained at the expense of the rest of Australia.

You are OK with Tassie?

I think he has a valid case - I have travel plans. But if they do not pan out ok.

The breach has been via an aircraft arrival - take some responsibility.

Australia had ZERO community cases for a long time -We imported them via aircraft, then we had community cases.

But the line is still never a case of Covid has been proven on a flight or a crew.

Good I'll take a ship then!

Liberal = good
Labor = bad
That's the general consensus on this forum.

There is no link between the shuttle bus driver and the cases on the Northern Beaches.

Not what I said. It is linked to air travel

Not a train on the Northern Beaches..

WA has now re-imposed the full 'hard border' with NSW with mandatory 14 day quarantine reimposed effective 12:01am Friday 18 December.

Breaking just now across the news and social media platforms.
Initial Source: @nat_forest / @10newsfirstper

It's a shame Mcgowan can't place any faith in contact tracing, it has been proven time and again it works. Unfortunately he has created the perfect storm in WA where he cannot allow a single case in as WA is not prepared to manage a potential outbreak. Surely this cannot continue, it's criminal the damage it causes the community.

Well let’s see. So far in Sydney we’ve seen no firm action, just a few requests to stay at home, which I’m sure over the weekend before Christmas in the northern beaches will be observed without question..../s

Let’s see what the numbers look like in a few days, the cases seem to be from all over the northern beaches, and one positive case who traveled all over the city including Penrith. The numbers may jump significantly. At that point in the SA outbreak a lockdown was enforced which stopped the spread. Will Gladys have the guts to do one if required during Christmas week? I think that may throw most holiday plans in the bin.

On the other hand in WA it’s fairly certain they’ll be having a normal Christmas. You think West Aussies would rather be in northern Sydney right now?

That’s not a hard border. You can still enter for any reason you just have to self isolate.

Tasmania has prevented entry to anyone who has been in Sydney’s northern beaches, Queensland will impose 14 day isolation to anyone from that region. If the outbreak spreads beyond the Northern beaches I’d say other states will follow suit and extend it to all of Sydney.

As Queensland has also followed suit and instituted restrictions, that should silence the conspiracy theorists here that Palaszczuk was only being tough on borders for election posturing. The truth is this is a serious virus, not just “a cold” as was said a few posts ago, and it needs to be dealt with seriously.

Where did this latest outbreak originate from that has already reached a vulnerable population (aged care)? So much for NSW having the “gold standard” approach according to Morrison.

This is one time Gladys need to it hard stop mucking around NSW contact tracing has been proven to work but now with Xmas and summer approaching ppl are moving around a lot more. The 60 and 70 yr old that were first positive need to be charged as they did not stay home whilst awaiting results they went on multiple trips to shops.

Seems every state is now shutting out northern beaches LGA, straight after the AHPPC meeting, which seems alarming.

Hopefully this can be contained, NSW have done a fab job with contact tracing but this could go bad very quickly

It's already gone bad. From Victorias experience, if you have detected 17 cases, there are probably three times as many, unless all those cases are immobile nursing home residents. That means that the Sydney basin is already riddled with Covid, but you will need a week before you detect them. The folk from the northern beaches are, in general, reasonably affluent, mobile and are not going to alter their holiday plans willingly.

My prescription, which I doubt will be applied, because, well, it's Sydney, is the full Melbourne style lockdown complete with curfew, closures and masks. maybe in a month that would work. The only option for the rest of Australia is to close the state borders again, today.

On that subject, I was regaled yesterday with stories of 180 kmh races up the Newall Highway to get into Queensland before the last lockdown. The mine workers made it back from Victoria by two hours. My advice to interstate visitors in NSW is to get out today.

The timing of this is most unfortunate.

Introducing a lockdown over the Christmas period will be met with limited compliance with the rules set out and probably also limited success.

Hopefully there is better news today with case numbers.

Merry Christmas All!

Well its about to be confirmed it originated at Avalon RSL from an overseas traveler (flight crew, hotel worker to be confirmed). The ticking time bomb we all feared as exploded.

So,been overseas & because crew no quarantine required?
FFS,why not make it mandatory for at least a test as soon as anyone sets foot in the country & stay home till result received.Why is this so hard for health officers/politicians to work out.